I am going to be honest; I found Ways With Words by Shirley Heath a better read than I had originally anticipated. Throughout the entire book I found myself drawing connections to many of the early education theorists such as Piaget, Vygotskey and Bandura, that I learned about in undergrad. I also found myself relating a lot of the text to texts we have been reading throughout the semester. For me personally, mostly from Street’s article The Meaning of Literacies. One key element consistently evaluated in The Meaning of Literacies was this idea that literacy is not the same thing in all cases. There are multiple literacies, different amongst cultures, and social literacies. I found this concept to be an overarching theme present in Ways With Words.
Heath sets the tone in the early chapters of the book (1 and 2) by comparing and analyzing the history of 2 regions she later goes on to study: Roadville and Trackton. She uses an ethnographic method span over the course of 9 years where she was particularly interested in the learning language habits of the children based in these communities. Observing how the children learn through the language they are exposed to and how this learning as an affect on their education, specifically in the pre-k years. Trackton is an African American community where the ‘common experience of hardship’ is a staple in their every day lives. Roadville is also a hard working community, but is a primarily white neighborhood that focuses on morals and active conversation amongst the youth. Although both communities value education and want their children to grow up to be educated, their linguistic strategies practiced on their offspring appear to differ.
In Trackton the idea that ‘When a baby has sump’n to say, he’ll say it’ seems to be an essential mentality believed amongst the Trackton people. It was rather interesting to me that they felt it was important to wait until the child is ready to speak and didn’t feel the need for direct prompting. In this community Heath observed that although children were often spoken about, they weren’t so much spoken too or engaged in direct conversation during their early years. It is also important to note that in this particular community boys were favored more so then girls and this often meant they became a part of the community from a much earlier age. This was a big focal point of mine after learning this and I was constantly looking for answers as to why this was and how it affecting the learning of the children.
On page 111 Heath writes that “Flexibility and adaptability are the most important characteristics of learning to be and to talk in Trackton” which made me question why there was no flexibility in including girls in the community at an early age as well. Another aspect of Trackton I noted in my notes, mainly because of its difference from Roadville, was the idea that ‘The best stories are junk and anyone who can talk junk is a good story-teller’. Chapter 5 discussed the role storytelling had in both communities as a way of providing entertainment. For the people of Roadville who valued honesty and the truth, their stories often revolved around the same concept. They believed the only time it may have been acceptable to ‘lie’ was when playing a game of make believe. Although both communities storytelling varied in some aspects, they were evidently a staple in the child’s upbringing.
Heath found the people of Roadville held their babies a lot from the very beginning (spoiling them) but gave them ample time to explore their environment. This reminded me of a few different educational theorists and their ideas on learning through the environment. Bandura believed that through environmental/observational learning the child copies behaviors of others, leading to decision-making skills and development. Heath says that the people of Roadville “believe that adults teach children to pay attention, listen, and behave, children learn not only how to talk, but also how to learn. I found these two concepts to be systematically parallel. Although both communities provided opportunities for play the people of Roadville encouraged their children to use real items such as flour and water whereas the people of Trackton let their children play with any and all items.
Both Vygotskey (1966) and Piaget (1969) believed play was important. Piaget believed play was a way for children to make sense of their experience and Vygotskey felt play was important for an individual’s cognitive development. Through Heath’s observations she was able to see the role of play in the child’s life and literacy. The work Heath did in this book was significant to us as educators because it shows us a more in depth example of how children’s upbringing can affect their schooling. Little things such as the way parents spoke to their young babies could really impact their literacy skills.
